Decks Everyone Should Build (At Least Once) | The Command Zone 358 | Magic: The Gathering EDH

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Show Notes:
You can research and theorize as much as you want, but sometimes there's no substitute for direct experience. On this episode, we're going to talk about the decks everyone should brew on their own at least once, and the important lessons you learn when build and play them.
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[@Illianor123]

JLK: “Golos is kind of the perfect storm” Commander Council “too perfect you might say”

[@ApexZer0]

Every mono colored deck is something I'd recommend. It shows you the ins and outs of every color and make you dig deep into scry fall

[@Deris76]

Built monowhite (OG darien), monoblue (talrand), monoblack (shirei) and monored (Torbran) and I can't emphasize it enough. It really helps understand how of the color, how you can generate value out of every color, and manage your removal (looking at you red!). I thought about building monogreen, but with the absurd push of green in recent times I postponed it

[@scaredycat3146]

Some commanders might warp the "color feel" due to having a strong own theme though. I've seen plenty Arcum/Emry/Urza decks with no counterspells or even nonartifact carddraw. So people should keep that in mind. Otherwise I agree.

[@tsuri7275]

@@Deris76 except for Talrand, do not play anything but 4v4, 5v5, 6v6; or else people will hate you or unless you are not playing more than 5 countermagic

[@Deris76]

@@tsuri7275 In my playgroup, some people got more tunned decks (gitrog monster, Windgrace, Atraxa, etc), so Talrand is in my highest level of power. I'm certainly not gotta play it against "chair tribal", or "6 cmc tribal". It's on par with my 2nd strongest one (Nath kinda staxy).

[@lepromisedmonke7012]

"golos is the perfect storm... no not storm commander" Me, a Golos storm player: "You underestimate my power"

[@inajar7947]

Don't try it! gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=132145&type=card

[@jonklaus1466]

@@inajar7947 Highground IMO

[@Zedekiah92]

@@jonklaus1466 Wired flex but ok ;)

[@crispy2802]

Oh hey, bud.

[@cg5380]

R u a golos player who takes multiple turns or do you just play tons of big spells

[@icebarrierangel6610]

"When players are new they build atacky decks like dragons" -me with my 5 dragon tribal decks 👀

[@koelkast9]

Me when my first deck was Anje Falkenrath turbo combo...

[@williamcarswell3012]

Me my first deck was jund dragons 😂

[@wyattsmith6659]

I think actually my first deck was an izzet standard deck that just killed people with four shocks and a thousand year storm, because I'm the exception

[@dukebergen1642]

Going strong with 5 color Dragons since 2017!

[@puppyton2793]

I just built my first dragon tribal commander deck based on lathliss. It’s generic but fun

[@Nimbleroo]

Im surprised you didnt mention "build on a budget" having had mentioned restriction breeds creativity. And looking at 5colour mana base doeant need to be the best cards available. I think restricting yourself to a budget forces you to play sub optimal cards, as for a unique lesson you will learn how to find cards that dont normally appear on commom deck lists. Play a slightly more curve ball stratergy because playing around rarely seen cards is hard. Youll appricate the good carda when you get them and feel the upgrade and power. Unlike someone who has bought a top teir list online youll understand the smaller finese plays instead of relying on power, and upgrading a budget deck compared to an average deck could be seen like taking the first step to climb everest from the bottom or an average deck that gets to start half way up at base camp.

[@reedeek1473]

It's fun and get you experience when you build a deck in a tiny budget on MTGO. I like 5$ or 10$ budget for this thing. You explore MTGO world and world of weird combos. It teaches you to look for a non-mainstream cards. It's like a budget deckbuilding on a paper, but with much higher powerlevel

[@NightShadowSystem]

Indeed

[@BananaNationTV]

I agree with this! the fact that edhrec becomes so much less useful helps you find new and interesting cards that can sometimes have much better synergy than the staples posted everywhere.

[@archibaldtuttle9019]

Agreed. You also get the added bonus when you work on a budget where your cards only gain value. When I first saw Kess Consultation I thought it was a budget build, then everyone caught on and threw value on all the pieces. Scout cheap cards now, you'll never know when they become unavailable.

[@Illusionmaker_MTG]

They didn't touch "budget", as their "budget" is higher, then what most players would spend on their "budget" deck :P It is hard to go back to the likes of taplands, if you could play your og dual after all.

[@atlasstewart2374]

DJ looks different than I remember

[@Zedekiah92]

wow

[@e2shamir675]

Lol

[@EisCold17D]

That made my day

[@RobSomeone]

Based on the tiny thumb nail, I thought it was him.

[@williamcarswell3012]

I'm dead 💀 lol

[@drewdogg416]

As a broke college kid, I always just make decks out of the cards I've collected and gotten over the years. Not many expensive cards, but they fit with the playgroup I tend to play with. Its fun, but when I go to a card store and play commander, those guys have decks that destroy me all the time.

[@hunterstephens3671]

I think in this vein, everyone should make a Budget deck. Pick a $ amount, and stick to it. You'll find it a lot harder than you think, teaches you how to really optimize.

[@andrewsparkes8829]

@@hunterstephens3671 Lots of budget decks can still be really strong though - my friend's Tatyova deck (basically 30 ramp spells, 5 draw spells, 5 mass one-sided bounce spells, 10 counterspells and 10 fatties, with the rest basics) regularly wipes at my LGS and only cost $25. Can probably still wipe a less synergistic $100 deck made of an old collection.

[@IncrediPaulAZ]

I feel ya. I played with a few groups at my lgs and one of the guys has mostly $10,000 decks. Pretty much not fun at all when one person wins all the time

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

something nice for having a more levelled playfield could be to exchange decks once in a while: sometimes maybe you could borrow some of your decks and have a less powerful game for once, or maybe one of them could borrow you a more powerful deck that isn't too difficult to pilot. Although I understand that not all people at a LGS would feel comfortable in handing a deck possibly containing expensive cards to a stranger.

[@hunterstephens3671]

@@andrewsparkes8829 Oh I agree. Used to crush with my $20 Uril until my group built enchantment hate.

[@Mach9Blumpkin]

decks that have taught me lessons over the years: tasigur scepter/flash cedh taught me how to "smell blood in the water" when playing a combo deck. calling opponents bluffs, learning when you can afford to play around different types of interaction, when you're likely to lose your chance to go off, etc. karametra god of harvests taught me about double dipping. cheap creatures to get lands, whitemane lion, etc, but also effects that benefit from the lands I'm searching or from the cheap creatures I already want to include all my control decks (and there have been a lot, currently nicol bolas the ravager) taught me proper threat assessment and politicking, how to leverage my 7 cards vs my opponents' 21 and so on.

[@alexbevan2183]

Sounds about right :D I have a few decks like this too, it’s always fun build decks that you actually learn from. some notable decks that are great to build are: Thromok, the insatiable. Taught me a lot about token generation deck decks as well as how squared numbers work lol :) Animar, soul of elements. The best way to win is by big boi stomp with counterspells and burn spells. Marchesa, thorn of the dusk rose. Lesson being commander reliant decks need to have the commander removed ASAP else the result is a loss. Sen triplets. Control is fun and helps to deal with people acting like a dick. And Hapatra vizier of poisons infect... Lesson being opponents don’t like having a life total of 10 instead of 40 and you will be focused off the table faster than you can loose you’re friends from 1 attack.

[@selkokieli843]

Playing Grenzo havoc raiser (force attacks and play opponents cards) taught me two hard lessons in psychology and game design, the same lessons that Maro said he had to learn the hard way: people want to make their own choises and play their own cards. Grenzo doesn't steal cards from people's hands or their permanents, only from their library and at random. He doesn't reduce any of their actual resources and the effect is rarely much good but still my opponents removed him over and over because they lost access to those specific cards and it made them feel bad. Forcing attacks usually made them just mad even when it was advantageous for them to do that attack. Good arguments rarely made a difference. Tougj lesson but very enlightening.

[@orgazmo686971]

1st Lesson: You don't need a perfect mana base. Agree, I have a Sliver deck with 1 non-basic (Myriad Landscape) and it's great.

[@kraxosOBK]

That's honestly the reason your deck is just good and not unfun to play against

[@orgazmo686971]

@@kraxosOBK Thank you.

[@carlosdias854]

@@kraxosOBK slivers are not unfun to play against

[@kraxosOBK]

@@carlosdias854 Well. As someone who's played Slivers, played against Slivers, and played against a cancerous Slivers Eldrazi deck I have to disagree.

[@momagic383]

@@kraxosOBK Did you cry after you lost?

[@eamonbell6378]

Them: Brings up tokens/ counters Me: Easy. Do both with Ghave Them: Rhys and Atraxa Me: ...

[@michaellooks8397]

I'm scrolling through comments before watching, that's hilarious.

[@LordDuddy77]

As a Ghave saproling token player...yes it should of been Ghave. Its so freaking good and hard to stop

[@trumpets101]

Me: Do both with Elenda

[@michaellooks8397]

So, I'm actually working on a build with Ishai & Reyhan. Y'all have any good +1/+1 counters jank to share?

[@Myrdin90]

Everyone forgets about poor ol' Dhave

[@MagicalHackerMTG]

With 50% of all possible commanders being monocolored, thats what I advise people try to do more: Monocolored.

[@thump3r]

I was thinking the same thing yesterday! I feel like commanders legends are pushing the monocolored commanders more.

[@Russian_engineer_bmstu]

Great idea, would be, if all colors were even

[@SchwarzundWeis]

My first deck was a Massacre Girl Deck. Still my favorite deck!

[@AbyssArray]

Does colorless count for mono colored? xD I built a Hope of Ghirapur deck recently

[@julianvickers]

@@thump3r Not exactly. You'll notice that all of the mono-coloured legends in the set have partner. Sure, you can have two partners with the same colour though.

[@warrioraidan]

On the mono white deck front, I'll make an argument for God-Eternal Oketra. She is a fun interesting build around and I love pulling her out when someone says white can't be a good commander.

[@Luca-mv9vd]

As a fellow monowhite player i really suggest to play Elesh Norn w/ Overwhelming Splendor and Kormus Bell + Urborg combo, and don’t forget Helm of the Host.

[@killjoy7782]

I just build original Oketra with Worship and Pariah effects lol

[@godfather3916]

I pull out my Celestial Kirin and let the suffering ensue

[@iNCoMpeTeNtplAyS]

I used the theros beyond death helios as my monowhite commander

[@nahboi483]

My defense is Teshar. He’s so hard to hold down. You can boardwipe and he’ll be back in a dominant position in less than 8 mana. He’s gets especially gross when you have a sun titan in play, and you start just grabbing like 3-4 things from grave a turn.

[@Shamrock501]

I think in terms of purely learning deckbuilding choices/strategies, building a pauper commander is great. It teaches you how to build your deck as efficiently as possible with cards that are commonly (pun intended) underpowered and is usually budget friendly enough that you can build a few different style decks without breaking the bank.

[@PhazonOmega]

I love this! I was actually wondering about budget, since they have six decks in ther video. How can you afford that? Add one more challenge! And if anyone thinks budget decks are bad, then they haven't seen Mitch's decks play (Commander's Quarters).

[@drongobrat6471]

Everyone should try a partner deck at least once. They're really crazy.

[@oppositecatchyghost8025]

Especially with Commander Legends coming up and the abundance of partners in it.

[@uphillwalrus5164]

Partners are an excellent way to enable strategies that don’t have a commander

[@quinnquitars]

@Drongo Brat are there any partner decks that u would recommended I look into building and trying for myself? I’ve always wanted one

[@luxaa319]

preferably a thrasios deck. You'll never come back from the simic side.

[@crackysr2961]

I whittled myself down to one deck and they are the RUG partner commanders from 2020

[@almogdov]

I liked the point about the "commander doesn't matter" decks. When I wanted to build a Queen Marchesa deck, it was extremely difficult to decide on the theme, thought about pillowfort, control, royalty matters deck, monarch matters. In the end I figured that she can be a good commander for a token deck, her point is mainly to put the Monarch into play and your army of tokens helps maintaining the monarchy. She rarely survives more than a turn but she already did her thing and the rest of the deck is focused on building an army and attacking. The queen needs an army, she doesn't need to stay long to lead them.

[@Deris76]

I built marchesa as a control deck, but that create token over time. Cards like Elspeth, Sun's champion, outlaw's merriment, luminarch Ascension, grave titan are some of my favorite cards to play in the deck

[@WusigiDr1]

“You can probably go through your box at home and have a good mana base” *goes through box at home* Hmmm......I guess basics will do

[@VoodooDuck]

I think basics are underrated, they are freaking awesome, come in untapped and work with a lot of stuff like evolving wilds and so on

[@felixmortem1177]

@@VoodooDuck Snow-Covered Basics + Extraplanar Lens = only your basics tapping for double mana

[@tatsuhirosatou5513]

@@felixmortem1177 not really everyone plays a ton of snow-covereds because of that.

[@emilysmith2965]

I feel this in my soul. Just bought a bunch of Temples and the new Zendikar double-faced land options, just to have some new budget-friendly mana options. The hand lands (reveal a different land to make it untapped), the pain lands, and even the bounce lands can go a long way on a respectable budget. Personal advice, your mileage may vary: use the COVID time to stock up on lands, kit out your Cube, anything that helps make up for all the paper FNM you’ve missed in your local store. You’ll feel more normal and you support your store. :) tinkering around with my Commander decks, old and new, has been a real joy!

[@felixmortem1177]

@@tatsuhirosatou5513 No-one else in my pod runs Snow-Covered Swamps so it's asymmetrical in my meta

[@cobberhambone9484]

Everybody needs to build a Tribal deck at least once. You get the satisfaction of a big stompy board state, you get to appreciate the archetype staples and anthem effects, and you get to feel like you're representing a race or faction at war. It's cool and makes for great role-play.

[@GamerTT00]

My first commander was the scarab god with controlish-giant creatures, this year I switched to pure zombie tribal and is hella fun, sometimes draining 8-16 LP

[@eldrasgames5008]

@@GamerTT00 I love my Kumena tribal merfolk deck its fun to just pile on the +1/+1 counters!

[@blxckmxge5055]

Tribal is by far my favorite way to play in commander it's probably a weakness too though

[@briankenney9528]

My rat tribal is the tightest deck i have ever made

[@charmishing]

I just casually built a wizard tribal deck out cards I wasn’t using and somehow it plays faster than my decks that actually have green in them.

[@Avatar_Yoshi]

I think one of the best lessons I’ve learned when making decks that was touched on was to always try building them to do one or two things, and no more. My first iteration of Pir and Toothy was Super Friends, +1/+1 counters, and card draw for Toothy. I realized as I played it that I didn’t actually need to invest in +1/+1 counters, I just needed Toothy to get big to threaten commander damage. So after cutting all the extra +1/+1 counter support that I didn’t need (I still kept a handful), I now have a great Super Friends deck with Toothy as a separate wincon that’s always available in the command zone.

[@jaywinner328]

I'd say do two things, or at least have multiple ways to do your thing. I lost a game to a Turn 1 Extract on my Laboratory Maniac. Never again.

[@Avatar_Yoshi]

@@jaywinner328 agreed, “one thing” should be open or resilient enough that it doesn’t get shut down by a single counterspell or targeted removal 😂

[@Avatar_Yoshi]

@@jaywinner328 so I guess an added statement is your one/two things shouldn’t be “win with laboratory maniac” it should be “draw your deck out and win through various means”

[@abhorhybrid]

Your cohost in this episode brings so much good energy and enthusiasm. Thanks for bringing him on again.

[@rakkel6061]

On the comanderless group, one of my favorite and strongest of my decks is Abzan wolf tribal with subthemes of tokens and planeswalkers. It uses Ghave for colors and an eventual win con if necessary.

[@whosilence]

"you should build a counters deck" anyone said POISON COUNTERS?

[@iManticore]

"There ARE control decks that don't have blue" Blood pod. Easily one of the most OPPRESSIVE decks out there, one of the best decks in CEDH. 4-color. No blue.

[@twisterzz4]

I love that yall actually make your sponsorships really entertaining to watch

[@pereklund4345]

hi decks that taught me a lot was clones decks and copying decks. It helped me to see what good cards my opponent uses and how I could interact with them. thanks for another good video. =)

[@frago321]

43:08 Killing Commanders is such a strategy telling that cards like Darksteel Mutation , Imprisoned in the Moon , Oubliette and Song of the Dryads cut many commander decks right away, and many times they don't even have a card to deal with your aura to recover and recast the Commander. Red needs something like Chaos Warp again, to block Commanders.

[@sc100ott]

I’m curious how people feel about those cards. Every time I’ve dropped Imprisoned in the Moon or Song of the Dryads, it has just totally wrecked that one opponent. They spend the rest of the game critically disabled, while everyone else is playing Magic, and I just end up feeling bad about it. Should I not play those cards? Only play them late game? Play them, and then negotiate a deal for my enchantment removal? Or should I just not feel bad that they didn’t come prepared with enchantment removal or a viable plan B?

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

@@sc100ott One player's opinion: you should be able to recast your commander from the battlefield (with added tax) to deal with those cards.

[@samarbrander981]

This is why I never make my deck completely reliant on the commander I always build it so that the commander makes an already good deck better.

[@frago321]

@@sc100ott well it's not a single anwser, people gets si usted to think only on themself that many forget to use a simple naturalize or similar. You ser not yo blame, but yeah, sometimes you steal they fun from a player with those cards, Even ir they hace a disenchant domewhere ir a plan B. Ir feels is just to much punishment. My tip, play it on some more experienced players

[@ProphecyPhrase]

I've built Scion of the Ur-Dragon with dragon tribal on a budget and it works really well. I have 0 fetches and shocks. I use lots of cheap low CMC ramp like Cultivate, Farseek, Sakura Tribe-Elder, Kalhani Expedition etc. etc. It works great, more times than not I can get all the colours out I need easily and quickly.

[@Harabaz726]

I made a 4 color ad nauseum deck using ludevic, and tymna. I believe that learning the way the combo of the deck works and how it interacts with your opponents helped me tremendously.

[@SuperiorDavid]

Liked what you said about value decks! I remember the first time I played my Muldrotha deck and realized my deck had a ton of ways to generate insane value, but nothing to close out the game. Wasn't a fun experience for playgroup, definitely needed an actual win con

[@Tylerniimi-io8mr]

My favorite commanderless deck is Ramos dragon engine with door to nothingness (:

[@rydercerni6472]

You are my favorite human ever

[@rydercerni6472]

I do the same thing

[@Hysube]

Samut is mine, she only drops occasionally and it's only because I wanted to build a rgw deck with what I had sitting in my rare box...

[@Kedl_]

Ramos is mine also but as a god tribal with the world tree

[@Kedl_]

@@robertmonroe1883 he's in the 99 but considered as cEDH so I don't play in as commander so I'm not targeted from the start

[@Zedekiah92]

i feel bad for these guys, they have 358 episodes and are clearly trying to find podcast ideas, but i think it would be cool to make more deck tecks (like the tim deck)

[@Zedekiah92]

if it was not clear I LOVE THIS PODCAST AND FEEL VERY EMOTIONAL AT EVERY EPISODE

[@Zedekiah92]

@@lunarlight3131 i love what they do to

[@andrewsparkes8829]

They tend to do one or two for every Game Knights. It's not like they've stopped it...

[@THEMithrandir09]

Meh, they just run out of content to cater to the masses. There's plenty of against the grain episodes to be made. How about "Can stax make white good?"

[@Superangeldemongirl]

I love this episode! It's important to learn how to play different archetypes so you know how to play against them!

[@grevedanko]

I agree with all of the decks you brought up. I really got an apiphany when I built my first token deck. Sweet episode!

[@DeadCobar1996]

for five colour, i use the gates package for mana fixing using cards such as mazes end, circuitous route, district guide etc to fetch the gates (plus it gives you a win con with maze's end)

[@batcow5148]

My friend made a golos mazes end deck but it quickly turned into just a golos deck, but it still had all the gates in it and some gate cards so he will just randomly win with mazes end

[@chottstuff]

it puts a target on you. people ask how many gates you have and if its 7 or more everyone aims for you. I had a gates deck with child of alara / door to nothingness and a voltron build. I was grouped up on every time I played it,

[@DeadCobar1996]

@@chottstuff honestly, i find slapping down omniscience with ur dragon distracts people from the gates. but then again i've never actually won with the gates. Still a cheap way of mana fixing in 5 colour for those who can't afford loads of dual lands

[@utvarahellkite]

Just as a meme, I built a Golos maze's end deck, but I want to eventually turn it into a deck that revolves around most of the alternate win cons. It probably couldn't even successfully pull off most of the win cons. I just think it's funny.

[@puppyton2793]

Are you thinking infinite combo or like sonic ascendancy and felidar sovereign

[@utvarahellkite]

@@puppyton2793 not combos, just cards that either say you win the game, or cards that say target player loses the game.

[@thomasrogers9160]

Instead of building Golos, I built Niv-Mizzet Reborn with Maze’s End as my favorite win con. The gates are the only 2 color lands in that deck. Kinda love it tbh!

[@jakeapplegate6642]

I just put all the high cmc cards from my binders that I’m too chicken to play in any other deck in and called it good. It’s actually really strong.

[@coreyroberson4550]

I did Ramos, Dragon Engine alternate wincon tribal - had I think 15 of the "you win the game" cards in it and a smattering of cards designed to help trigger them all. You never know your strategy until you draw the cards.

[@Triwolf007]

My Karador combo deck helped me learn so much about deck building and how to cut cards. I use a landfall engine for some recursive value with emeria shepherd and ended up cutting avenger of zendikar and rampaging baloths for other cards that helped with consistency (a good discard outlet can never be overrated.) The lesson i learned about cutting cards that don't directly help your main goal from building that deck has stepped up my deck building considerably.

[@daniilzadorozhnyy8950]

Sidisi is my favorite deck and one of my favorite cards in it is Gnaw to the Bone which just gives you so much lifegain and lets you really buffer out lategame because it has flashback. I get a lot of groans when I cast it

[@kingwithoutakingdom]

The deck that's improved my deck building skills. It's a mono-white deck, it's one of my favorites, and its commander is a card that you've bashed several times Josh, Darien, King of Kjeldor. 80% of the time, I'm able to out ramp everyone else at the table, and everyone in my playgroup's learned, once Darien comes out, they can't hit me without furthering my board so I've had to include ways to deal damage to myself to ensure that I get my soldiers.

[@oliviauzquiano7392]

Got a deck list?

[@kingwithoutakingdom]

@@oliviauzquiano7392 Hasn't been updated for a while with the tweaks I've made since I built it, but this should give you an idea. www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1540187#paper

[@jackflowers2944]

Play a graveyard deck, so you can feel the frustration we feel when people remove your graveyard from the game. Feel emotions around cards like Tormod's Crypt, Bojuka Bog and Nihil Spell bomb.

[@icycoldfox1]

I have one friend that because of how he likes to play, he's learned to immediately exile Spore Frog from my graveyard (whether doing it himself or getting someone else to do it) whenever I'm playing my Meren deck. Spore Frog is one of the ways I keep myself alive because I don't own a lot of cards to win faster so it feels REALLY bad for me personally when Frog is exiled. XD

[@guusvanoosterwijk2693]

Amen, brother. Amen.

[@noesunyoutuber7680]

I see those cards and raise you Rest in Peace. Rest in Peace doesn't just reset your graveyard once, it turns it off entirely for as long as it remains on the table. I put Pernicious Deed in my Meren deck entirely because I once got Rest in Peace + Humility'd out of the game by an enchantress deck.

[@briankenney9528]

Graveyard decks are great when you play against an unsuspecting mill player. "Alright I mill half your library" "Cool thanks"

[@robbgallegos8503]

Deck that taught me a lesson was Yorvo Lord of Garenbrig. This was a fun one with finding the balance with tokens, counters, and green stompy.

[@trackatlas6626]

One of my first EDH decks was a Mono White soldier life gain deck and it was actually pretty good. Darian was the general. I took it apart a long time ago, but sometimes I think about rebuilding it with what I've learned since then.

[@H.Flarup]

Have you thought about to make a behind the deck you play? Where we follow one of you and your thoughts behind the deck build and which way to build it?

[@williamo5031]

I like this idea! The issue is that a lot of decks take days of heming and hawing over the perfect cards and looking at strategies online, so it might not be super entertaining. Maybe like a 30-minute long vlog where they record key decision making steps?

[@mkol1998]

"And no, lands matter isn't on our list, since we're 99% sure you already have one!"

[@nicholasstavash7880]

You fool

[@lukedalrymple7677]

then brings up tatyova lol

[@micheal5973]

Well maby 1..... or three....

[@michaellooks8397]

*cries in non-green

[@mkol1998]

@@michaellooks8397 Non-green has nothing to cry about (except for how unfair the power difference has gotten over the years)! Have you never encountered the might of an Esper lands deck with Dakkon Blackblade as commander?! A sight to behold.

[@petercook3536]

I made a mono white commander deck from Opal eye. Super challenging with some great ideas in to play the game taught me loads! I’m glad they said not all control decks are blue saying no! I play a Rakdos control deck which is great with not a counterspell in sight :)

[@only1sn1not1taken]

Commander in the 99 deck. I have a G/W Kenrith deck that I do still have the land base to use all of the activated abilities. The fun thing about the deck is that, at its heart, it's actually an Emeria Shepard deck. It's an amazing value graveyard deck that abuses a non legendary creature.

[@heretik82]

Decks: - 5-color at 5:24 - Mono-white at 9:25 - Control at 13:00 - Value at 22:40 (without intro 22:50) - Tokens/Counters at 27:37 (without intro 27:46) - Graveyard Recursion at 35:53 - Commanderless at 40:57 I can encourage everyone to watch this in its entirety. I found it quite interesting and gave me some ideas for deck (types) i haven't tried yet.

[@degomadletun1486]

U da real mvp. Thank you

[@arthurmusson4981]

I think should also try group hug deck. Commanders: Phelddagrif, Kenrith, Karona, Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis. The lesson learned would be the aspect of negotiating in commander.

[@lordsnom5287]

Kyanios and Tiro is such a fun deck with making everyone draw 15 cards for turn then slowly mill them with folio of fancies

[@johanandersson8252]

i’ve used selesya Selvala as a group hug and it can work.

[@scaredycat3146]

Mileage may vary from group to group though. Some people really hate grouphug.

[@johanandersson8252]

@@scaredycat3146 I know and i feel its weird. Groupslug is fine and people gonna kill you and Grouphug is not fine and people still gonna kill you.

[@corekidfrom9700]

The deck that learned me the most is my Golos Eldrazi deck, you said at a moment that new player want big stuff, and it's pretty accurate with me😂 This deck is my dedication to Eldrazi, but I learned to remove the less efficient Eldrazi by putting (for exemple) Cultivate or Azusa, or removing an Eldrazi themed removal (one that cost 3 and a black) by putting Path to Exile instead, and all that kind of things

[@thetruesarcasticone6661]

One deck I built that helped me was a Niv Mizzet, Parun storm deck, it teaches synergy and the fact that things add up

[@machdude3366]

Section for White: Yeah, with the way commander legends have turned out... we are still in the same space as before with limited effectiveness.

[@Deris76]

There's this one card, keeper of the accord, that'll make some waves for sure, but apart from that not much of monowhite changed sadly

[@machdude3366]

@@Deris76 That makes waves relative to white. no bombs in white means white is always in perpetual catch up.

[@justanotherhuman7106]

I think we need better Horses, Unicorns, and Pegasi along with decent commander so I can finally have my pony tribal deck

[@benjaminarmstrong9627]

We have a good unicorn commander, and morophon

[@OGTahoe3]

There's a new unicorn commander in commander legends

[@sc100ott]

Emiel from Jumpstart looks like a decent commander for Unicorns, but she’s like $60 tight now. 😖

[@juancaicedo2007]

I just got into Magic the Gathering on February of this year.... starting with standard but thanks to the Command zone all in love with edh. The first deck I have ever build is Zaxara, the Exemplary, it is a bit slow but I’m super happy. The rest are pre-constructed decks with upgrades.

[@avavanpelt926]

Same. I just got into the MTG this late October. The first decks I got were preconstructed commander decks. The new Zendikar rising one. 2 for 40. Then from there I branched out and added some buff to the landfall deck. (My friend who learned at the same time with me has Ptsd from Rampaging Baloths) My current favorite is a pre made populate deck, a Windgrace deck and the Landfall deck with upgrades. I want to build a mono white cats deck. I love the lifelink. Actually all of its good.

[@samuraisam97]

Building a sephara deck really taught me how valuable ramp and card draw is in decks, while also showing me that you have to sacrifice some higher cost strategies and play closer to the ground when your backed against the wall. Also to hold onto my cards for the right explosive moment because if I waste all my cards I won't be able to reliably refill my hand for another swing at victory. The cards in my hand are more valuable than any other color that has some sense of reliable card draw. It really made my politic game strong too as a proverbial 8th card lol

[@jacewilliamson4698]

The definite deck not mentioned that everyone should build is combo. It sounds cruel, but it really has made me a better EDH player, especially in being able to deal with other combo players. It especially helps if the combo is complicated and/or face up, it helps to see the table differently while being "that guy"

[@justtheinstinct4893]

"If I drop a cheap artifact like a mox amber or a onithopter" Cheap? In CMC? Yes In market value? Nope

[@williamcarswell3012]

20 dollars isn't that bad

[@BaygelTheDog]

@@williamcarswell3012 i mean when thats two hours worth of pay....

[@williamcarswell3012]

@@BaygelTheDog technically yes but you're not losing that money its simply being moved into a collection or a savings account if you will because if at any point you want to get your money back eBay is a pay and reprints are part of the risk but technically you haven't lost any money you just moved it

[@BaygelTheDog]

@@williamcarswell3012 that makes sense, but id liken it more to stocks or something similar as cards go up and down in value

[@williamcarswell3012]

@@BaygelTheDog that's definitely fair its more like a stock market

[@sebastianoparenti3536]

An amazing episode, thanks guys. One of my favourite yet. I've yet to build commanderless deck:Off to Scryfall

[@gpenny95]

For mono white, one of my favorite decks I still run a lot is Odric, Master Tactician as a white weenies deck. Learning how to be able to keep up on mana without flooding was often an issue early on. Another big issue more recently solved, at least on a maturity level, is staying power through cards like Faith's Reward being able to come out on top after someone else board wipes.

[@Jay15199]

Godo, Bandit Warlord: It's a coke-fuled fun fest that everyone should pilot at least once.

[@meownezz]

"next up, control" My green mage heart: NEEEVVVVEEERRR!!!! 🤣

[@ancientswordrage]

Green Control sounds like an interesting challenge

[@lordsnom5287]

My Blue heart mage: "Ok how bad do we need to make everyone suffer?"

[@blindcommander]

How, long time fan and long time Necromancer Y graveyard decks have 4 pieces not three 1- Sac outlet 2- Sac fodder 3- Sac pay-offs 4- Recursion. Lol. Thank you guys! Very helpful. Please keep up all of the hard work! Love you guys.

[@kevindevine7537]

I made a temur energy deck with electrostatic pumbler as the commander ( my playgroup is very casual, they didn't mind that I was playing against traditional commander rules) and as someone who recently started playing magic, that deck taught me a lot of good lessons in resource management.

[@AdairCorbin]

You don't need a perfect Mana base is very true. But you guys didn't go into building a good Mana base on a budget. 1) Use very few if any tap land 2) use at least 12 ramp cards that also fix 3) make sure you really know which colors you need more of and which you need early( usually green to ramp)

[@seisner6655]

My Teshar deck draws more cards then most decks. He is a brave birdy boy who does not get enough love.

[@tomasztrela7873]

This episode... Great idea, very solid execution. As a enfranchised mtg player pondering on diving into Commander i would love to see more episodes in this broad theme or just expanding on this one. Good decks to start within a broad archetype? Flavours within control or something?

[@ElvlishWarrior21]

Just watched this episode, but episode topic: You guys talked about multiple decks where there was a slider between multiple ideas when building a deck. Talk about the best cards that bridge that gap by kind of being good at both like phyrexian delver or eternal witness for graveyard recursion etc. I think that would be a cool topic! Anyway you guys are awesome keep it up!

[@FerVillegas]

Love this episode! but, is it just me or the number of commercials is growing like crazy? i mean, you guys do a great job producing them, but it is kind of a lot for me. It really distracts me from the video and then i miss seconds or minutes when you come back from your sponsored shorts. Would love if you could keep them short... thanks!

[@allterraincapybara6749]

They've mentioned recently how the pandemic is making them struggle, so they've had to take more sponsors to help ends meet. They said they're trying to do their best to make them entertaining but ads are ads. Hope this helps clear it up at least!

[@ancientswordrage]

What I like it that they're easy to skip, if you don't like that ad.

[@adamapple8638]

@@ancientswordrage yeah, I have no issues with them for that very reason

[@atlaswar2425]

25:17 Question: "How do you interact with Landfall decks?" Me: Play ManaBarbs...

[@steveokegawa4140]

Atlas War This, but also Zozu the Punisher. And damage doublers like Furnace of Rath/Dictate of the Twin Gods. And if their landfall deck has a greedy mana base, Price of Progress wrecks too.

[@atlaswar2425]

@@steveokegawa4140 Oooo Price of Progress makes me think of Acidic Soil

[@jemolk8945]

@@atlaswar2425 Ankh of Mishra is another ZoZu like effect, but colorless. There's also Polluted Bonds in black and Sire of Stagnation in U/B. And of course, if Scapeshift or similar happens to be their wincon, Time Stop, Whirlwind Denial, Summary Dismissal, or anything else that can counter a whole bunch of triggers are potential answers. Allowing the spell to resolve, mass countering the triggers, then spot removing problem lands should be pretty effective. Acidic Soil is fun. It's how I most commonly win with Kynaios and Tiro group hug. Give everyone a ton of lands, and then kill them with Acidic Soil and/or Treacherous Terrain. Should work similarly well against people who just drop a ton of lands naturally. Treacherous Terrain is in Gruul and costs 8, but it has basic landcycling for 2 and only hits your opponents, so it's got upside over Acidic Soil as well.

[@jacobbono]

The answer to what commander for the "commander doesn't matter" deck is Kenrith, the Returned King. Because that card does everything. Just having access to all those activated abilities for one turn at a crucial point in a game can completely turn things around.

[@soulweaver64]

It's nice to see Jake on the podcast! This was a great idea to talk about, and new faces are always a treat.

[@mikelesnieski1488]

Golos should be grabbing cascading cataracts every time unless it's in your hand.

[@PurpleTentacle17]

Started the video and I wad like "oh good they brought jumbo commander back... wait, what happened to him?"

[@MTGQChannel]

Elfhame Sanctuary is a awesome card when you run basic lands. A great fit with Golos to fix your color!

[@sybrrr]

When Josh talked about the "stop hitting yourself" deck that took me back. I had this deck for multiplayer back before commander was a thing. It is still my favorite among all the decks I've ever had. I wish I could build an equivalent deck in commander to that one, but there is only one Repercussion and there is nothing else like it in Magic. It was really necessary to make the deck work.

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

I personally like niche commanders that force a player to be inventive to make them work decently. Absurd value enginges like Muldrotha or Chulane I honestly find as powerful as boring, especially the second requires zero skills as it rewards the player for just playing - horrible card added to the format, at least in my opinion. Yarok is also extremely powerful, but for that effect I'd rather try some additional challenge like building around Naban, which forces me to focus on wizards and limit the choice of cards to blue. Golos I find an interesting one, because while it can allow for broken very competitive deck, it can also be a Timmy's dream just allowing to cast big dumb and flashy creatures or spells. Then again, it's probably just me being a dinosaur unimpressed by the recent power creep that WotC is pushing into EDH.

[@bflandragon90]

I built a mostly green golos deck

[@annenissen-petersen8803]

As a person WHO got a muldrotha ITS not always ded simple and ez

[@WotCorp]

"You can make a control deck without blue in it". I have created a staxy abzan deck using Tayam. Really fun for me, not for my opponents. Just what Magic should be like.

[@sentientpaperclip874]

Mono red daretti stax...

[@gysahlgemuse7208]

I have a Xantcha Control deck

[@toaster4598]

Meren is a great control deck with the four fleshbags, mind slicer etc

[@jakeapplegate6642]

I’ve had setups with my elf deck where I’m bouncing and replaying reclamation sage over and over and regenerating my guys or bouncing them in response to removal and other interaction and I feel like I’m playing mono green control sometimes.

[@jonathanmartin2760]

Oh ya new video just in time for lunch break at work, love you guys

[@dentedface]

The best lessons I've learned from a deck were back when I was brand new to commander. I took my freshly rotated Kruphix and made a deck around it. That deck taught me not to do things until I need to. Don't tap lands until the end step, don't cast creatures until it's safe to. It also taught me to try to misdirected my opponents into thinking I have fewer options than I do. And I learned that ramp through creatures is good, but is generally no match for land ramp.

[@Hollowquinn]

Need to bring faeries back its such an underrated creature type that has potential

[@ApexZer0]

We just had em in eldraine. We need more horses and insects first

[@mikotagayuna8494]

You have not really lived without building a deck of People Sitting in Chairs with Kenrith as your commander.

[@MP-om9fj]

My hidden commander was Kaalia of the vast in a Scion of the Ur dragon deck, feels good to have Conspiracy out to tutor up Kaalia as a "dragon" and swing into a player dropping a Maelstrom archangel lol! Great video!

[@mattd824]

I built a Teshar deck, and he's terrifically fun when you get your engine running!

[@inajar7947]

Last time I was this early, I was casting my commander with Jeweled Lotus.

[@NitsuaBZ]

Jake if you're reading this, I love you! I'm so proud of you friend.

[@pingrek5720]

On the notes of some build options a friend of mine suggested doing a sort of pauper commander where the cards can only be common/uncommon or were once printed at those rarities since there are some pretty decent uncommon legendaries coming up and already printed to brew around and since its only going to be uncommons and commons it can be relatively budget friendly while still holding its weight if you manage to find some less used cards that do basically what some rares do but cost a mana or two more or dont add in a extra effect that wasnt really needed

[@dakotawalters5358]

My most recent build was an Omnath 4 color, thats an elemental tribal/landfall deck and I love it.

[@BTypeHStyle]

Command Zone: You don't need perfect mana bases. Also Command Zone: Plays fetches, Shocks, original duals, cradles, towers Practice what you preach, let's see you guys all play a 5 color deck with taplands and see how that goes.

[@corporalkills]

4:53 to the start of the show

[@PrimeEnLightenedShadow]

These comments never get enough love.

[@WarlordKentax]

And back after the break at 22:35

[@Frozirra]

Ayyy! My man! Learning how to solder and stuff and repairing equipment is hella dope. Btw I’d reccomend buying a used soldering station, and try Deoxit rather than alcohol for contact cleaning.

[@sc100ott]

25:18 Great question-How do you interract with a good landfall deck? What are the best strategies?

[@Yourbeautiful666]

By “value deck” they mean a simic deck. All the same, all easy mode to play. Blue/green, who knew

[@abc123connor5]

I just have yarok with tatyova in the 99, because yarok is busted and makes my friends hate me

[@stfinalwrath]

@@abc123connor5 Do you have Deadeye Navigator and God-Eternal Rhonas for flickering Rhonas in there by chance? If you flicker Rhonas using Deadeye Navigator, and do that 5-7 times, your 1/1s and 2/2s become 16,000/16,000 and more, and you end up swinging for between 12-15 million damage. So yay Hydra Omnivore with another card that gives trample and swing at a player that can't stop the damage then boom, every opponent gets 1-shot.

[@stfinalwrath]

@@abc123connor5 Because Yarok doubles Rhonas' etb trigger, Deadeye becomes super busted.

[@abc123connor5]

Of course I love having my friends hating me lol, yarok is one of my "fair" and "low powered decks"

[@Yourbeautiful666]

Yarok is strong, but it also kind of fits my point. I never consider him a sultai commander, he’s like a simic commander who tripped in a small puddle of black.

[@jcjackson9367]

Skip to 5 minutes in to actually get to the freaking subject.

[@makingnoises2327]

gotta do that for all of their videos lol

[@jasontappe6838]

My first Sliver Tribal deck was Zur the Enchanter. Used token generators and Arcane Adaption along with my sliver creatures removal and ramp. The deck was a blast to play and taught me that stereotypical tribal commanders are not always the best. And by best, I mean best in making memories.

[@lisaslaikeu4095]

I've build both a Baird deck and am in the middle of building a Sephara deck. That being said, I do agree though that white needs more love in terms of making it so it can have more effective cards so it can feel closer to being equal to the other colors on the color pie.

[@DETHofMAN]

“I don’t have old schools duals” has literally never entered my mind when building a 5 color. You guys are all over the place when it comes to the budget you think your audience has. Literally you go from 1%er magic players to “let everyone play and have a chance to show their decks” to the most degenerate combos in the same sentence.

[@hammer12482]

Yeah they'll name off $2000 worth of cards then say budget constantly

[@Illusionmaker_MTG]

If you pay attention to Game Knights they usually play decks that are outside of the budgetrange for most players I guess. Oh and they often tell their listeners that you won't be able to attack several turns in a game of EDH...but many episodes of Game Knights feature quite a lot of combat so I wouldn't take their advice to serious in some situations. They often give good advice...but sometimes they are way off the charts. Sometimes I have the feeling that they embraced the reddit meta and more often play with ppl from their esteemed bubble of highly enfranchised players, instead of playing against what most ppl actually play against in stores worldwide. Just watch the recent episode on TWD and you can clearly see that they, at times, are a bit disconnected from their audience.

[@notsuspiciousthejudgmental2423]

There is literally no interesting looking mono white commander for me

[@TheKiller85ize]

Balan is pretty fun in my opinion.

[@GamerdevilPro]

I can recommend God-Eternal Oketra, she's a ton of fun and can easily compete with Sultai piles and all the other stuff that's going on in the usual power levels. (The deck uses cards like Whitemane Lion to get out an army of zombies and then use Odric, Lunarch marshal to give the whole team double strike, vigilance and other stuff). Another deck that others like quite a lot is Darien, King of Kjeldor. It's very unique, especially for a white deck.

[@BallroomDancer7]

I made a mono white token deck, Darian, King of Keldor. It is a great deck and it has an interesting token making strategy. I have had so much fun with this deck, and would highly recommend it!

[@mong0038]

I love just buying the precon decks and having a good start point. The new landfall deck is crazy fun and it seems easy to improve upon.

[@xXAlchemist]

Damn it was posted 23 seconds ago and I still didn't get the first like 😭

[@jackstoney2581]

I did lol

[@paolorumi9882]

I learned a lot from building aristocrats: the balancing of the sacrifice fodder / payoffs / enablers is really hard to achieve and a very interesting challenge! Also everyone shuold try cEDH in my opinion: it is totally a different world from casual commander but it teaches a lot in term of threat assesment and deck choices

[@royal-wolf]

I have a deck that I can switch out the commander any time with up to 4 commanders, all of which are in the deck and ready to be played. It was fun and unique, and because of the restrictions I used cards that dont see as much play. The deck isnt optimized but that made it play in a way that I enjoy far more.

[@atk9989]

I have done all but mono white, first deck try was 5 color dragons, then i built a token deck with a life gain sub win con. Then I made a badish vampire deck, and my last one was a pillow fort chulane that runs creature spam and enchantress for draws off the pillow fort cards and the win con is draw out.